Furnace cabinet means with combus



March 27, 1951 L. J. MILHOUSE 2,546,674

FURNACE CABINET MEANS WITH COMBUSTION AIR FEEDING DOOR STRUCTURE Filed June 15, 1946- INVENTOR. LAKE/V M/L 6 01/55 JMW P atentecl Mar. 27, 1951 FURNACE CABENE'E MEANS WITH COMBUS- TION AIR FEEDING DOOR STRUCTURE Larew J. Milhonse, Elyria, Ohio, assignor to The C. A. Olsen Manufacturing Company, Elyria, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application June 15, 1946, Serial No. 676,964

1 Claim.

periods; and it has become the practice in the art to fix the air supply as by louvers, conveniently located in the furnace cabinet door. At the same time, for improved saleability and because a great many furnaces are installed in view of living space, a great deal of attention is devoted to cabinet appearance.

Louvers are unsightly and subject to plugging, and are relatively expensive.

The type of furnace contemplated usually includes a large door approximately the entire area of one of the cabinet wall panels so that upon opening of the door relatively free access is had to essential burner parts and control apparatus such as thermostats, pilots, gauges, regulators, and the like.

The principal object of this invention is to provide pre-determined and constant combustion air supply for the burner of such a furnace, through the doorway of its cabinet, employing an imperforate door arrangement as will ap pear, whereby the cabinets appearance is improved and yet the cost is reduced.

Briefly, the invention comprises so mounting the door that it will be slightly spaced from its wall panel when closed, so that combustion air inlet is had about the door periphery yet such inlet is not readily visible. Thus the door may be imperforate and hence of cleaner ap pearance as well as of cheaper construction than were it provided with the usual louvers; and also the peripheral air inlet opening is automatically cleared of any obstruction each time the door is opened. Further, the clearance about the door in closed position is such that linger insertion therein is permitted for door opening, so that the door need have no handle, and both cabinet appearance be further enhanced and cabinet cost further reduced.

Further objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein Fig. 1 is a front perspective view of a typical gas burning warm air furnace embodying the invention, parts being broken away to show interior construction; and Fig. 2 is a typical horizontal section through pertinent parts thereof showing enlarged details of the door and adjacent parts of the cabinet.

With reference now to the drawings, the furnace cabinet is of sheet metal, generally rectangular, having wall panels including side-wall panels l and a front-wall panel 2 having an opening A therein occupying most of its area. Spaced back of the opening is a sub-panel 3 having a combustion air opening 4 immediately serving the burner 5.

As is usual in the art, control apparatus such as referred to above, may be mounted on the sub-panel 3, to be located within the compartment defined between the sub-panel and the opening A, to be freely accessible by way of the opening, but concealed by a door for the opening when the door is in closed position.

A door 6 is provided for the opening A, the door overlying its panel peripherally of the opening, along the sides and top thereof.

The door is also spaced from its panel 2 when in closed position as indicated at B, Fig. 2, so as to clear the panel sufficiently to provide inlet passage along the door edges for combustion air to the burner 5, of total effective area approximately that of the opening 4 in the sub-panel 3.

Notably, however, whereas the opening :2 in the sub-panel 3 is in concentrated form, disposed immediately adjacent and about the burner 5, the form of the corresponding eifective passageway opening in the door panel 2, when the door is in closed position, is greatly elongated, dis tributed peripherally about the door itself and very narrow relative to its length.

Means are provided for mounting the door to be in such relation to the panel opening A when in closed position. As here shown the door is mounted by hinge means I at one edge, providing an axis la, adjacent the front panel 2 of the cabinet but spaced from its door edge so that the latter will swing clear when the door is opened. Retaining means for another door edge such as the opposite one, is arranged to provide yieldable securement thereof. As here shown such retaining means is in the form of a spring clip 8 riveted on the opposite door edge, having its extremity 8a formed to ride over the corresponding edge portion of the near wall panel 2 and a stop portion 81) which determines the clearance of that door edge from the panel; to yieldably secure the door in closed position in parallelism with its panel yet permit door opening by swinging about the axis 1a. The clear- 3 ance B is such as to permit finger insertion for door opening, so that no handle is necessary on the door.

Preferably ornamental covers 5c are provided for the hinges and 80 for the clip, as appears in Fig. 1 and as indicated in broken lines Fig. 2. Also it may be noted that in the example illustrated, since the cabinet means includes a base above Which the door is located, in closed position the door need overlie the panel beyond its opening only along side and top edges. Were the cabinet means not provided with such a base, obviously the door might be arranged to have similar overlie along its bottom edge. In either event, however, the spacing of the door in closed position will be made such that the total effective air inlet opening, when the door is in closed position, will be sufficient to provide complete combustion at the burner Within cabinet.

In any event, it will be evident that when the door is in closed position as illustrated, the air inlet provided at its periphery will be dissembled, and its presence not readily discernable; and, the door itself being without the louvers heretofore usually found necessary in the art, the general appearance of the cabinet as a whole, viewed from the door side, will be clean and much improved.

While the necessary air inlet disseinbled by this invention may not per se concern the average purchaser or user of the furnace, the latter is concerned with appearance as well as cost, both of which are improved by this invention.

Further, louvers and like relatively concentrated air inlet openings of the prior art have been known to become plugged as by children or rodents, to the detrimental if not dangerous resultant impairment of furnace operation; By this invention it is practically impossible for any substantial portion of the entire air inlet opening to become plugged. In addition, upon every opening operation of the door, any such obstruction is automatically released and thereby cleared.

What is claimed is:

In a furnace having cabinet means and including burner means therewithin, said cabinet means including an interior sub-panel having an opening of concentrated form through which said burner has its combustion air supply, and an outside wall panel having a substantially larger opening leading to said subpanel: imperforate door means for the opening of said outside panel, mounted on said cabinet to have a predetermined closed position in slightly spaced relation before said panel and thereby provide a narrow combustion air passageway p.,- ripheral of said opening therein, and in overlying relation to said opening to conceal said peripheral passageway, said passageway having a total area substantially the same as that of said concentrated opening, and said door means being movable from said outside wall panel to permit free access to said sub panel way of said larger opening.

LAREl/V J. MILHOUSE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 294,773 Dorr Mar. 11, 1884 621,599 Buckwalter Mar. 21, 1899 657,612 Nott Sept. 11, 1900 701,525 Washburn June 3, 1902 1,623,054 Johnson Apr. 5, 1927 2,059,793 ,Hunker Nov. 3, 1936 2,184,813 Knight Dec. 26, 1939 

